Shattered Promises 8: See You In My Dreams
by JulieM
Summary: A trip to Grandma Sarah’s gives Harm and Mac a blast from the past. Set after the events of 'SP 7: Sleepless Nights.' COMPLETE!
1. Chapter 1

This is installment 8 in the Shattered Promises series.

1. Things Fall Apart.

2. Picking Up The Pieces.

3. (a & b.) Starting Over.

4. Getting It Right.

5. Getting To Know You.

6. Happy Endings.

7. Sleepless Nights.

8. See You In My Dreams.

9. Scattered Photographs.

10. Dreams Really Do Come True.

11. Celebrations.

12. Turning Full Circle.

Rating: K+ just to be on the safe side.

Disclaimer: JAG and its main characters belong to the genius who is DPB and to CBS. I don't make any profit from writing any of these fics, but simply get to exercise my overactive imagination every now and then. Please don't sue me, as I haveno money and way too much time on my hands :0)

Summary: A trip to Grandma Sarah's gives Harm and Mac a blast from the past.

Spoilers: None. This isn't set at any particular point in the JAG timeline and there are no specific references to any episodes.

Feedback, as always, is very much appreciated. Please don't hesitate to press the 'review' button!

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OOOO

See You In my Dreams

As the SUV pulled into the drive, Grandma Sarah came walking out of the front driveway. As Cathy, Mac and Harm climbed out, she rushed to them.

"Darlings, it's great to see you! I got so excited this morning, that I decided to prepare a nice meal and before I knew it, a whole Sunday roast was in the oven!"

"Grams," Harm told her, "I'd like you to meet Catriona and of course, you know Mac."

"Hi ma'am," Cathy greeted her, "please, just call me Cathy."

"And you just call me Grams," Grandma Sarah told her, "And of course I remember the lovely Sarah! I was so happy when Harm called to tell me! About time, too!"

Harm and Mac just laughed when Cathy told Grandma Sarah, "Yeah, that's what I told them!"

As Cathy carried her bag towards the house, Grams took her other arm and the two of them began bantering away.

"Looks like they're going to get on like a house on fire!" Mac commented to Harm as he carried their suitcase. Harm paused and took Mac's hand in his.

"So, what do you think of Gram's farm?"

"It's beautiful," Mac told him.

"Yeah," he agreed, "I spent most of my time up here when I was growing up. Even as a teenager, I preferred to come up here during the summer, rather than go abroad with my Mom and Frank."

"I feel so at home here," Mac told him, "It all seems like I've been here before..."

Quietly, she also added, "In fact, that barn does look kind of familiar…"

OOOO

_Twenty years previous…_

_Sarah Mackenzie ran from the campervan parked in the middle of the field, to explore the surrounding farmland._

_"Sarah, baby don't you go bothering anyone now!"_

_As Sarah turned around to answer her Mother, Joe Mackenzie burst out of the campervan, strode across and grabbed Sarah by the hair._

_"Joe!" Sarah's mother Deanne started, "There's no need…"_

_"You listen to me, missy, if I hear that you've been causing trouble…"_

_"No, Dad," Sarah promised him, "I promise, I won't."_

_"Good," her dad replied, as he let her go and stumbled back to the van to get another beer._

_Sarah broke out into a run, to get as far away from the campervan as possible. As Sarah neared an orchard, she slowed down to a walk, then thought back to when she had arrived home from school the week before, to find her Mom and Dad throwing thing haphazardly into a rented campervan._

_"You were complaining that we never go anywhere our summer vacation," her Dad had told her._

_"But Dad," Sarah had told him, "the school semester ends tomorrow, not today."_

_When she had later asked him where they were going, he had thought for a moment._

_"How about the coast? A nice seaside vacation."_

_However, both she and her Mother had known to keep their mouths shut when he had started to drive away from the coast._

_Sarah had no idea where they were now, but she liked the peace and serenity that surrounded her. It was so different from the smoggy, noisy inner cities where she had always lived._

_Just then, Sarah froze as she heard a rustling. Suddenly, a figure dropped out of one of the branches of a tree. He landed steadily on his feet and as he looked up, Sarah noticed that he had piercing blue eyes._

_"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Do you live around here? I've never run into you before."_

_"No," Sarah told him, "I'm on vacation here with my parents."_

_"My name's Harm," the boy replied, "my Grandma owns the farm over there and the orchard."_

_"I'm sorry," Sarah apologized, "I didn't realize that this was private property. I'll leave…"_

_"No," Harm insisted, "it's okay. Please don't leave. It's alright for you to be here, my family won't mind."_

_"You're sure?" Sarah asked him. At his nod, she held out her hand and shaking his, introduced herself._

_"Hi, Harm. My name's Sarah."_

OOOO

_Harm glanced over as he and Sarah strolled through the long, cool grass. He noticed that she kept nervously fidgeting with her long, dark hair._

_"So, how old are you Sarah?"_

_"Fourteen, how about you?"_

_"I'm sixteen."_

_"So, you live with your Grandma?"_

_"No, me and my Mom and Step Father are visiting her. We live in California, in La Jolla. Where do you live?"_

_"Well, my family moves about quite a bit. Right now, we live close to my Uncle in Arizona. Before that, we were in New Mexico. But we'll probably move again, soon. It's just what my Dad is used to, the military was always moving us around. My Dad used to be in the Marines…"_

_"Your Dad's a jarhead?" Harm interrupted her._

_"He used to be," she corrected him, " and less of the 'jarhead.' My Uncle Matt is a Major in the Marines and the best one there is, too. Someday, they're going to make him a Colonel."_

_"Sorry," Harm apologized, "I didn't mean it as an insult. That's just what my Dad used to call them."_

_"And I bet your Dad's a squid, right?" Sarah grinned._

_"Yeah, he used to be. He was a fighter pilot. He went down in Vietnam, during the war."_

_After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, during which Sarah had no idea what to say, they were both distracted by noise in the sky above them. They both looked up to see a red biplane, flying over a crop field._

_"That's Mr. Rawlings. He owns the farm next door," Harm told Sarah, "We'd better go back over there. He's going to dust his crops with pesticides."_

_"Okay," Sarah replied, "It's a really nice plane. I've spent most of my life living in big cities. You don't see those kind of planes there."_

_"Do you like planes?" Harm asked her._

_"Yeah, I guess," Sarah told him._

_"Come with me, then," he told her, "I want to show you something."_

_Harm then led Sarah to a large barn._

_"Wow," Sarah breathed as she caught sight of the big, yellow bi-plane._

_"It belonged to my Grandfather," Harm told her, "He was a pilot too, he was shot down during the Second World War. It doesn't actually fly though. My Dad was restoring it when he got called up. It's laid here untouched since he went MIA."_

_Looking at the side of the plane, Sarah noticed the name in black, cursive writing._

_"The plane's called Sarah?"_

_"Yeah," Harm told her, "My Grandfather named it after my Grandma. Her name's Sarah, too. One day, I'm going to become a fighter pilot, just like my Dad and Grandfather. And I'm going to fix the plane, so that I can fly it, whenever I come home."_

OOOO

Out on the porch, Harm and Mac watched the big red bi-plane fly over the fields surrounding the neighboring farm.

That's Jacob Rawlings," Harm told Mac, "That plane used to be used to spray his crops with pesticides, but it doesn't get used for that anymore. They get someone in to do it for them now. But Jacob likes to take it out over the fields, just like his Father and Grandfather did, before him."

Just then, Grams came out with two glasses and a pitcher of lemonade.

"I'm off to church, now. I made some pink lemonade. Where's Cathy, by the way?"

"She's up in her room. She a bit mopey, at the moment," Mac told her, "her boyfriend's just gone back on duty. She's really missing him, right now."

"Poor girl," Grams commented, "I remember the feeling well. I was just the same with Harm's Grandfather."

"You remember the Roberts, don't you Grams?" Harm asked her.

"You mean Bud and Harriet and their little boy?"

"Yeah, well Cathy's seeing Bud's younger brother, Mikey."

"Ah," Grams sighed, "young love."

At that moment, Grams friends from church pulled up in the driveway.

"I'll see you all later," Grams told them, "You two enjoy yourselves while I'm gone."

Harm and Mac waved, then Harm poured each of them a large glass of lemonade.

"Grams makes such good lemonade," he told Mac, "It's been a winner at the state fair ever since I can remember."

"Mmm!" Mac approved, taking a sip of hers, "It tastes wonderful!"

OOOO


	2. Chapter 2

OOOO

Part 2

_Harm was outside, just finishing feeding the hens in the yard, when he saw Sarah in the distance, running towards him. He was about to wave to her, when, as she got closer, he saw that she was quite distressed and was bleeding from the nose._

_"Sarah!" he exclaimed, "What's happened? You're bleeding!"_

_"Nothing," she told him, her voice still shaky with emotion, "I'm alright."_

_Harm could see by her red eyes and the lines down her face that she had been crying._

_"C'mon inside," he told her, "we'll get you something cold to drink and get you cleaned up."_

_He took her by the hand to lead her, but she hesitated a second._

_"Are your parents in?" she asked him._

_"No," Harm told her, "Mom, Frank and Grams have gone to church. They won't be back for a while yet."_

_Once they were inside, Harm grabbed a piece of kitchen roll and tilting Sarah's head back, began to wipe away the blood._

_"I think it's already stopped bleeding," Sarah told him._

_"How did this happen?" Harm asked her, "It's quite a nasty bump."_

_Sarah hesitated a second, before telling him,_

_"It… it was just an accident."_

_Usually, Sarah didn't go about telling people about her home life, but something about Harm told her that she could trust him._

_"My Mom and Dad were having a fight. My Dad lost his temper and went for my Mom, but I got in his way. My Dad accidentally caught me with his hand."_

_At Harm's horrified look, Sarah quickly explained, "Oh, he doesn't make a habit of it, he'd never purposely hurt me. This wouldn't have been that bad, but I guess I caught his Marine Corps ring."_

_Slowly, Harm nodded his head._

_"Is your Mom going to be alright?"_

_"Yeah," Sarah assured him, "Dad's passed out now. When he wakes up, he'll have such a killer hangover, he won't be able to get out of bed. And he's always sorry for what he's done when he wakes up."_

_"Would you like to stay and watch TV?" Harm asked her._

_"Yeah, okay. Do you mind if I use your bathroom to clean up a bit?" she asked._

_"Sure," Harm told her, "It's just at the top of the stairs. Second door on the left."_

_After she had washed up, Sarah joined Harm on the couch in the living room, where he was watching re-runs of "The Brady Bunch." As the afternoon movie started, Harm casually glanced at Sarah, then snaked around the back of the couch. Sarah noticed this, but didn't mind in the slightest. It was nice to have someone to talk to, to trust in, particularly when you were an only child. Also, the fact that she was constantly moved from one place to another meant that she didn't really have much of a chance to make friends, let alone meet boys._

_The two of them relaxed together on the couch watching the movie. Afterwards, Sarah stood up._

_"I'd better get going," she told Harm, "It's already 4:37. My parents will be getting worried if I'm not home soon."_

_Harm himself had not noticed what time it was, as there weren't any clocks in the living room. He took a look at his wristwatch. Sure enough, it was 4:37. Sarah, Harm noticed, was not wearing a watch._

_"How did you do that?" he asked her._

_"Do what?" she asked him, as they headed out the door._

_"Do you mind if I walk with you?" Harm asked Sarah._

_"No, not at all," she replied and Harm locked the front door, then they set off down the road. They walked in comfortable silence for a few minutes, when a large, white car passed them, then braked to a full stop._

_"Hang on just a second," Harm told Sarah, "That's my Mom. I need to give her something." He fished the bundle of house keys out of his pocket and ran to the car. The passenger side window wound down._

_"Hello, darling," his Mother greeted him._

_"Hi Mom," he replied, handing her the keys, "I locked the house up before we left.""_

_"Who's the young lady you're with?" Frank asked him, interested._

_"That's Sarah," Harm told him, "She's on vacation here with her Mom and Dad. She dropped by and we watched some TV. I was just walking her home."_

_"That's my little gentleman," Gram enthused, proudly, "He's like his Daddy and his Grandpa!"_

_"I'll see you all in a bit," Harm told them, before running back to where Sarah was standing waiting for him._

_"She's a pretty, young thing," Trish observed as she glanced back at Sarah through the rear window._

_"Yes, she is," Frank and Grams both agreed._

OOOO

Harm and Mac sat together on the porch steps, looking into the night sky. As Harm cradled Mac against him, he gave a little sigh of contentment.

"It's really beautiful here," Mac commented.

"Yeah," Harm agreed, "It's great when there are no clouds and you can see all of the stars."

OOOO

_Harm was up in the loft of the barn, stargazing with his telescope, when he looked down and saw Sarah walking through the orchard towards the farmhouse. As she got closer, he called out her name._

_"Sarah! Up here."_

_She looked up at him, then gave him a wave._

_"C'mon up," Harm told her._

_"Okay," she replied._

_As Sarah climbed up the ladder into the loft, Harm held his hand out to her, helping her up._

_"Are you spying on the neighborhood?" Sarah grinned._

_"No!" Harm laughed, "Just star gazing. You want to look?"_

_"Okay," Sarah agreed, sitting down beside Harm and he pointed out all of the planets and constellations and explained about each one. Finally, some time later, Harm finished up, "and that one there, that's Jupiter."_

_They sat in silence for a minute, then Sarah turned to Harm._

_"Harm, is it okay if I stay up here for a while? I don't really want to go home just yet."_

_"Sure," Harm told her, "Sarah, is everything okay at home? Are your parents fighting again?"_

_"They were earlier," Sarah replied, "but my Dad's passed out on the couch now and my Mom's already gone to bed. They won't even know that I'm gone and they won't wake up until tomorrow morning."_

_As Harm gazed through his telescope, changing the focus, he saw that he could indeed focus on his neighbors' house. He chuckled as he remarked, "That wasn't a bad idea about spying on the neighbors."_

_When he didn't get any answer from Sarah, he turned around to face her and found that she was now fast asleep in the pile of hay behind them. As Harm looked out of the window into the night sky, he saw that it had started raining. He sighed as he looked back at Sarah and stroked her hair back off her face._

_"Goodnight Sarah."_

OOOO


	3. Chapter 3

OOOO

Part 3

_The next day, as Harm and Sarah strolled through the orchard, he noticed that Sarah was looking a bit glum._

_"Hey," he asked, taking her hand in his, "What's wrong?"_

_"I've got to go home tomorrow," she told him, mournfully._

_"It'll be okay," he told her, "we've still got a whole day left."_

_Quickly, they set about packing as much fun into it as possible. Harm showed Sarah all of his favorite places to hang out. Later, as they sat on a hillside, watching a local farmer rounding up his herd, Sarah told Harm all about the city where she lived._

_"There aren't a lot of places to hang out where I live. There are a couple of playgrounds, but nobody really likes their children to go in them, because once, a kid got stuck by a needle hidden in the sand. All of the drug addicts like to hang around there, after dark. No one stays out on the streets after dark, either. Gangsters drive around in their cars, with guns. This kid in my math class once got hit by a stray bullet, in a drive by shooting. He was alright after a while and he came back to school. He was showing off this bullet scar, that was right above his belly button. My Mom, Dad and I live in a two-bedroom apartment. It's nice, but it's not in a very good area of town. After the street lamps come on at night, you can see of the streetwalkers from my bedroom window. So, what's your house like? Where did you say it was in California?"_

_"La Jolla," Harm told her, "It's quite big. Me and my Mom moved there after she and Frank married. It's actually Franks house. It's by the beach."_

_"It must be really warm there," Sarah commented._

_"Yeah, that's one drawback," Harm told her, "I really miss the snow at Christmas time."_

_"I wouldn't miss the winter weather," Sarah told him, "Last year, our apartment was like an icebox, because my Dad spent all the heating bill money on booze. We were freezing."_

_As Harm put a comforting arm around her, she continued, "I'd never get cold with you around, though._

_As Harm grinned back at her, she hesitantly told him,_

_"When we met, Harm, I wasn't exactly truthful about how old I am."_

_"How old are you?" Harm asked her._

_"I'm still only thirteen, I don't turn fourteen for another three months."_

_"Well," Harm told her, "As long as we're being honest, I've got something to tell you, too. I'm not actually sixteen. I turned seventeen over 8 months ago. You don't mind, do you?"_

_"No, I don't mind," Sarah assured him._

_"Neither do I," Harm told her, "To be honest, I really thought that you were fifteen. You could even pass for sixteen. I bet you thought I really was sixteen! My Grams says that I could do with growing up a few years, sometimes!"_

_Sarah just chuckled._

_After a while, Sarah reluctantly told Harm, "I think I'd better be going now. It's 5:06. My Mom will be looking for me."_

_Once again, Harm looked at his watch to see that she was right._

_"How on earth do you do that?"_

_As Sarah rose from where they sat, Harm told her, "Wait a second. Will you meet me here, in the morning, before you leave? I want to say goodbye and show you something."_

_"That'll have to be early," Sarah told him, "we're leaving at seven."_

_"Well, will you meet me in the orchard at about six?"_

_"Okay," Sarah replied, then they set off back towards the van._

OOOO

_The next Morning, Sarah was already in the orchard when Harm arrived._

_"You're four minutes and fifteen seconds late," she told him._

_"Sorry," He apologized, sheepishly._

_"That's alright," she told him, "So, what did you want to show me?"_

_Harm grabbed her hand as he steered her through the rows of apple trees, until they reached a large specimen that looked worse for the wear._

_"Is it dead ?"Sarah asked him._

_"No," he told her, "it's still alive, but only just. Last week, the night before you came, there was a huge thunderstorm and it got hit by lightning. I thought that we could carve our names into it, to remember the vacation by."_

_"It won't hurt it, will it?" Sarah asked Harm._

_"No," Harm assured her, "we won't carve below the first layer of bark."_

_So, with that, Harm and Sarah started to design a masterpiece to commemorate the vacation._

_All too soon though, the hour was up and Harm walked Sarah back to the campervan. He kissed her goodbye as tears started to run down her cheeks._

_"Hey, it's okay," he told her, "We'll meet up again, one day."_

_"I hate goodbyes," Sarah told him._

_"This isn't goodbye," he assured her then added, "we'll always have our dreams." He gave her a hesitant kiss and pulled her in for a cuddle. Sarah responded in kind, then ran to the van and disappeared inside._

_Harm sat on the hillside as he watched the campervan disappear into the distance._

_"See you in my dreams, Sarah," he whispered, softly._

OOOO

As Harm and Mac wandered, hand in hand through the orchard, they suddenly came upon an old, twisted tree that looked immensely bent out of shape.

"Well I never!" Harm exclaimed as he traced around its trunk.

"This," he told Mac, "was hit by lightning about twenty years ago. I carved my name and her name in it, the first time I fell in love."

He and Mac looked at the large heart that was carved into the bark. The heart enclosed the words, 'Harm and Sarah. June '79.'

"Her name was Sarah," Harm told Mac, "She was my first real love."

He looked over at Mac and asked her, "You're not jealous, are you?"

"No, of course not," she told him, "I had a first love as well."

"Who was he?" Harm asked her.

"Just a guy I met on holiday," Mac replied.

She and Harm then turned and walked towards home.

"Perhaps I'll tell him the whole truth, one day," Sarah thought to herself.

OOOO Continued in SP 9: Scattered Photographs OOOO


End file.
